Laos-Thai bridge completion fully opens Kunming-Bangkok expressway

12/26/2013 8:45:16 AM

THE completion of the new bridge over the Mekong River connecting Laos and Thailand has opened an unbroken Kunming expressway to Bangkok.

The bridge, spanning from Thailand's Chiang Khong to Laos' Ban Houayxay, is the fourth Thai-Lao bridge on the Mekong, has dispensed with a ferry crossing that impeded the smooth flow of expressway traffic.

Being one of the four overland routes linking China to south east Asia, the 1,750-kilometre Kunming-Bangkok expressway was finished in 2008. With the expressway, it now takes only 10 hours to travel from Kunming to Sino-Lao border, and travelling time from Kunming to Bangkok is reduced from 40 to 20 hours.